Another mistake of the Pope. I will see what happen with the Vatican relationship with Chile when Piñera is the Constitutional President of Chile, in the incoming days.

What is the use to make such diplomatic "faux pas"?

The simple explanation is that Piñera is center-right, which orientation apparently doesn't please Francisco. Lagos, on the other hand, is described as being center-left. Is it really that simple for him?

Quote from serafina

I think there are unwritten alliances between the two poles of each South American country...

Last year I attended a course where I met two Italian girls living here. They are definitely leftist in Italy, and by definition, they became Peronist when they set foot in Argentina. So they were calling Macri names, inviting us to join them at the march for Maldonado, etc. I was appalled to see such strong engagement with a political movement that shares very little with the leftist movements we have in Europe. Not even the hardest core Marxists of Italy can compare to a moderately Peronist (or kirchnerist).

Perón was all his life a fascist, and peronism was a fascist philosophy with a populist twist. I'm not just throwing out insults here - from Merriam-Webster: "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition." With the exception of an overtly racist element, that's a description of Perón's government.

The problem of the political approach of the Pope is that he considers the Market Economy contrary to Christianity. But he neglects to recognize that St Thomas Aquinas and others important priest-scholars of the Renaissance accepted some form of Market Economy (of course, not exactly as we understand it now, because the Industrial Revolution came after that).

In short, they said that everyone has to work and use their talents to earn enough to live well, with dignity and not misery, following St Paul, who said that those who not work, must not eat.

Quote from Carlos

The problem of the political approach of the Pope is that he considers the Market Economy contrary to Christianity. But he neglects to recognize that St Thomas Aquinas and others important priest-scholars of the Renaissance accepted some form of Market Economy (of course, not exactly as we understand it now, because the Industrial Revolution came after that).

In short, they said that everyone has to work and use their talents to earn enough to live well, with dignity and not misery, following St Paul, who said that those who not work, must not eat.

St. Paul was a real hard-liner, eh?

Quote from Rice

St. Paul was a real hard-liner, eh?

Some say he was still suffering from a concussion caused by the slap he got on the Damascus road.